GGL: TV station must remove illegal games of chance

Recently the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder, (GGL) which is the gambling authority responsible for all regions in Germany, registered a victory at the VG München. The authority had initiated prohibition proceedings against what in its opinion was illegal gambling content streamed on the internet page of a German TV station. Now the court ruled in favour of the authority and ordered the TV station to remove the illegal games of chance from its website. But which type of gambling was this?

Since the 1^st. January of this year, the GGL has been regulating the gambling market across all regions in Germany. In summer 2022 we had reported about GGL’s administrative procedures against Lottoland and Lottohelden. Meanwhile the German gambling authority is fighting illegal gambling. In recent prohibition proceedings which were held at the end of March the Halle-based gambling authority achieved remarkable success.

TV station calls illegal games of chance “competition”

The private TV station which has not been named was offering a “competition” on its website. According to the GGL, this is however an illegal public game of chance. Participating in this “competition” is not free of charge and the result is a matter of coincidence. The VG München has now confirmed the opinion of the “games of chance watchdog” from Halle and it also viewed what was supposedly a “competition” as an illegal form of gambling.

The consequence: The TV station had to remove the illegal games of chance from its website immediately. Meanwhile the game’s contents on the website have been changed to be in conformity with the regulations. The authority’s prohibition proceedings were deemed to be legitimate. Last July in an article published on GambleJoe we had questioned whether the gambling authority could soon start blocking IPs.

Games of chance are still games of chance – even if the stake is only a couple of cents

The court determined that for the sake of the judgement of whether the “competition” is an illegal games of chance, it does not matter how high the stake is. In the case described here the participants had been asked to pay 50 cents to take part in the game. The VG München however determined that the administrative gambling term does not stipulate a monetary threshold in the State Gambling Act. Consequently, illegal gambling can happen even if the stake is only a few cents. Moreover, it depends whether the games of chance depend on coincidence.

The GGL-board member Benjamin Schwanke was pleased with the recent judgement of the VG München:

“the approach of the GGL shows effect. The court confirmation of the prohibition proceedings is a further step in the fight against illegal gambling. Games which are not free and which are described as “competition” are deemed to be games of chance, if the chance of winning depends on coincidence:”

Around two weeks ago we had reported that the GGL had criticised the unreliability of some of the online casinos. The GGL-board requested more cooperation from the side of gambling firms.

Gambling Authority is serious in its fight against illegal games of chance

In the past months the Gambling Authority, which is based in Saxony-Anhalt and which is the regulator for all Germany, was stricter when it comes to the fight of illegal gambling. In August of last year we had reported that the GGL is launching an anonymous referral portal, where the players can report illegal gambling offers directly to the authority.

Conclusion

The GGL had another success before a German court. A large TV station had to change its offer and it is not allowed to provide illegal gambling under the guise of a competition. For the court it does not matter that the players had to stake only 50 cent. However it matters whether the winning chances depend on coincidence.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/vectors/testmuster-fernseher-tv-testbild-152459/